Easter Eggs (Season 1)
Several Easter Eggs were featured in Life is Strange by DONTNOD Entertainment and Square Enix. : This article does not list all '''references' to different media and artists that you can find in Life is Strange. For a full overview on references, please see here.'' 555 Phone Numbers Whenever a telephone number is mentioned in the game, it has the prefix 555. That does not have anything to do with Arcadia Bay, however. The prefix 555 is widely used for fictitious telephone numbers in North American television shows, films, video games and other media in order to prevent curious callers from bothering real people and organisations by telephoning numbers they see in works of fiction.To read more about the prefix 555- used for fictitious telephone numbers see . Telephone numbers with the prefix 555 in Life is Strange: Episode 1: *Arcadia Bay Sheriff's number on Rachel Amber's Missing Person Poster: 555-388-6020 *Steve Hackney's telephone number (found on an advertisement in the Blackwell hallway): 555-846-9129 *Tyron's number (found on an advertisement on the Main Campus noticeboard): 555-756-1896 *Anti-depression hotline number (found on a flyer in the girls' dormitories): 555-784-9165 Episode 3: *Numbers from Student Information Sheets in Principal Wells' Office: *Numbers in the notebook at the Price Household: **Thomas B. - 555-601-2001 **Tony Bikes - 555-009-2064 **Two Whales - 555-503-1990 **Turtle and oven - 555-764-1065 Episode 4: *The Bloch Hotel number (found near the telephone in the Madsen Household): 555-397-0042 *ABPD non-emergency number (found on the department's website on Max's computer): 555-ASK-ABPD Episode 5: *Blackwell staff numbers from the school's pamphlet: **Admissions: Marianna Taylor - 555-630-8231 **Financial Aid: Lisa Avena - 555-630-8282 **Security: David Madsen - 555-630-8243 **Custodian: Samuel Taylor - 555-630-8233 Amaury There are many hidden references to Amaury Balandier, the lead environment artist at DONTNOD, scattered throughout Life is Strange. * A member of the 2013 Yearbook Committee at Blackwell Academy in is called "Amaury". * The soda cans in Chloe's room are a brand called "Pr. Amaury". * There is a postcard that can be found in Chloe's room, the metalbox under Chloe's bed. Once enlarged, it appears the letter was from someone called "Amaury". * Victoria's tablet is from the brand "Amaury" as evident from the textures found in the game files. * One of Jefferson's phtographs that is displayed on the Blackwell campus shows the name "Amaury" in the background. Yearbook_Flyer.png|Yearbook Committee members. soda-can.png|Pr. Amaury soda can. Postcard.png|Postcard from Amaury. Tablet textures.png|Geometrical net of Victoria's tablet. amauryphoto.png|Photograph on the Blackwell campus. Raoul Barbet's Dog Co-game Director Raoul Barbet's cute little dog signature is present on Max Caulfield's pencil case that we first see in Episode 1 in Mark Jefferson's classroom. It is unknown whether he drew it on the pencil case texture himself or whether somebody on the art team drew it on his behalf. Easter_Egg_signature.png Bigfoot Bigfoot is a large and mysterious humanoid creature purported to inhabit the wild and forested areas of Oregon and the West Coast of North America.For more information on the Bigfoot legend, see here. It's a recurring theme in Life is Strange since the game's story is set in the same area where the Bigfoot folklore originated from. be continued *The Bigfoots, Blackwell Academy's football team. *The fifth optional photo in Episode 4. Box Art Polaroid When Max attempts to fix her broken camera in Chloe's room in Episode 1, there are a number of polaroids visible on the desk. One of these looks very similar to the box/cover art of Life is Strange. It is not obvious in the game itself, as Max's broken camera slightly obscures this particular photo, but the game files reveal the full image. cover-art-polaroid.PNG|Texture and the ingame appearance Max concept art.jpg|Cover art Breaking the Fourth Wall In the diner sequence of Max's nightmare in Episode 5, "Polarized", Max has to enter a code to exit the diner bathroom. If you enter the incorrect code 50 times, the door will open and Max will say, "I'm going to make the designers pay for all these bullshit code puzzles!" Bottle Hunt During Episode 2, "Out of Time", Max is given the arduous task of finding five bottles for Chloe in the American Rust Junkyard. It is clear from a statement she later makes in the VIP section of the ''End of the World Party'' in Episode 4, "Dark Room", that the bottle-collecting task was not something she particularly enjoyed: "No. More. Bottles." During Episode 5, "Polarized", Max has the opportunity to once again put herself through the task of finding five bottles for a photo op in the nightmare maze section that resembles the junkyard. She will make several disgruntled comments about this: "Looks like there are still bottles to find... Oh, joy." "Chloe, I blame you for this... You will pay." "Oh no... Bottles. This might be Hell." "When did I get bad bottle karma?" Once she takes a photograph of all collected bottles, she says: "I need proof that bottles were out to get me, just in case..." Cat Pics Throughout the game, on several occasions it's mentioned that someone lost his tablet with cat pics on it. It became a running gag since there are several funny hints to the owner's desperate attempts to get it back, and even the thief has their say. * At the beginning of the first episode, Max spots a paper calling for help in finding the missing tablet and advertising a finder's reward. It states that the tablet contains a lot of personal pics of the owner's late cats (RIP). It also says that everyone would know who and where the owner is. * At the entrance to the End of the World Party, you can hear Stella talking to someone explaining that she hasn't seen any tablet with cat pics. * In Episode 5, in the street leading to the diner, Max can find a note from the actual thief saying that he regrets what he did and that he only was jealous that the owner "had all those cool cats in his life". * In Max's nightmare in Episode 5, one of the lines written in her journal says, "Find my cat pix. Please. My heart is broken." (To Be Continued) 2016-01-30_00022.jpg|Episode 5 Reward bitch and hiv pposters prescott dorms.png|Episode 1 Stolen Cat Pics Ad Swimming Pool.png|Episode 2 Coordinates TBA Deja Vu In Episode 5, there are several instances where Jefferson shoots David if Max tries to warn David instead of pulling the cable of the reflector umbrella left to her to distract Jefferson. Given the following warning options: David's Gun, Bottle, Table, Jefferson's Gun, David will get shot at least one time before the player notices the Pull option. When Max warns David about the gun Jefferson is hiding in his cabinet, which is the fourth out of four warning options available in this scene, Jefferson is again faster than David and manages to shoot him. Afterwards, he appears a bit puzzled and says, "Sorry, Madsen. Okay... Déjà vu..." Final Fantasy: Spirits Within In Episode 1, "Chrysalis", when Max is in Victoria's dorm room, she looks at her plasma TV and says, "That is a tasty plasma. Maybe I could sneak in and watch "Final Fantasy: Spirits Within." The film Final Fantasy: Spirits Within was rendered by Square Pictures, which is now a consolidated subsidiary of Square Enix, the publisher of Life is Strange. Don't Nod In Episode 1: Chrysalis, just as the logo of Dontnod Entertainment comes up for the credits, Max nods to the music playing in her earbuds. Hawt Dawg Man Hawt Dawg Man appears several times throughout the game: * He is seen in alternative timeline Chloe's bedroom. * He is featured on a poster on the wall of Kate's hospital room (if she is still alive in "Dark Room"). * He appears on an airplane screen in an alternative timeline in "Polarized". * He is featured on a photo in the Zeitgeist Gallery. * There is a calendar featuring Hawt Dawg Man in the storeroom Max enters on the way to the Two Whales Diner. maxstrip.jpg|Max's road trip selfie ("Dark Room") hotdog-altchloe.png|Hawt Dawg Man in Alternative Chloe's room ("Dark Room") Kate's Drawings.jpg|Kate's drawing ("Dark Room") hotdog-hospital.png|Drawing on the hospital wall ("Dark Room") 2015-11-01_00044.2.jpg|Zeitgeist Gallery picture ("Polarized") hotdog-airplane.png|Airplane screen ("Polarized") hotdog-calendar.png|Calendar in the storeroom ("Polarized") Hella Large With the Limited Edition Patch subtitle language, size and opacity became adjustable. The last subtitle size option after large is "Hella Large", referring to Chloe's slang. Hidden Concept Art Several DVD covers and polaroids appear to feature concept art that was created for the game itself.Reddit post by /u/IgelRM (TBC) Kate's Video Although there is an opportunity to view snippets of Kate's video within the game by sneaking a peek beside Juliet and Brooke in the hallway of the Girl's side of the Prescott Dormitory the morning of "Out of Time", it is unintelligible and cannot be watched. Any player who attempts to access the link to the site in real life is provided with the following official Easter egg: 'http://katesvid.com/ '''is an actual link that leads to a blog with a single post and a video that was "removed" by Youtube, linking to the fact that Victoria took the video down after Kate's suicide attempt. On a side note, the website was registered on January 26, 2015 — only four days before the release of the first episode of ''Life is Strange.https://who.is/whois/katesvid.com Keep Yourself Clean like Max The sign reading "showers open" on the bathroom door shows a girl seen from behind whose haircut is eerily similar to Max's. Given the fact that women are generally depicted with long hair or easily recognizable feminine hairstyles on gender pictograms, it probably is an Easter Egg. Showers sign.png|The showers sign Max vs sign.png|In-game comparison Leet The train that's seen in Episode 2 and Episode 5 has "1337" written on the side. This is the way "leet" is spelled when using only numbers. lis-ep2train.png|In-game screenshot. Train.png|Illustration from Max's journal. License Plates The license plates around Arcadia Bay are all references to popular television series and films. Blackwell Parking Lot Licence_Plates-10.jpg|#1 "QNT MLP" - Quantum Leap (Red Car near entrance) Licence_Plates-11.jpg|#2 "BRDCHRCH" - Broadchurch (Gray Car) Licence_Plates-01.jpg|#3 "TWN PKS" - Twin Peaks (Chloe's Truck) Licence_Plates-08.jpg|#4 "B R K B D" - Breaking Bad (Frank's RV) Licence_Plates-09.jpg|#5 "SXFTNDR" - Six Feet Under (Nathan's Truck) Licence_Plates-06.jpg|#6 "THPRCTC" - The Practice (Blue Truck) Licence_Plates-05.jpg|#7 "PRK SN RC" - Parks and Recreation (Brown Car) Licence_Plates-04.jpg|#8 "TH WR" - The Wire (Red Car) Licence_Plates-12.jpg|#9 "CRNVL" - Carnivàle (Brown Truck) Licence_Plates-07.jpg|#10 "THSPRNS" - The Sopranos (Blue Car) Licence_Plates-03.jpg|#11 "TWLGHTZN" - The Twilight Zone (Red Truck #2) Licence_Plates-02.jpg|#12 "THXFLS" - The X-Files (Warren's Car) Licence_Plates-13.jpg|#13 "BFFVMPRSLR" - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Gray Truck next to Warren's car) Episode 2 cutscene license plate.png|#14 "TPFTHLK" - Top of the Lake (Jefferson's car at the end of Episode 2) Two Whales Diner Licence_Plate_Reference_(EP2)-02.jpg|#1 "NTHRRTH" - Licence_Plate_Reference_(EP2)-03.jpg|#2 "DNNDRK" - Licence_Plate_Reference_(EP2)-04.jpg|#3 "L P H N T" - Licence_Plate_Reference_(EP2)-05.jpg|#4 "THFCLT" - Licence_Plate_Reference_(EP2)-06.jpg|#5 "THKLLNG" - Licence_Plate_Reference_(EP2)-07.jpg|#6 "GRNDHGD" - 2015-12-27_00053.jpg|#7 "RLSFTTRCTN" - 2015-12-27_00042.jpg|#8 "THFFC" - Life is... It's not allowed to say the game's title! There are several occasions throughout the game where a character begins their sentence with "Life is..." arousing the expectation of finishing it with "strange", but at the end it ends differently. * After altering the past by handing in her Everyday Heroes Contest photo to Jefferson in Episode 5, Max awakes in a San Francisco Art Gallery. Demonstrating how surreal this situation is for her, she says, "Life is... weird." * In Max's nightmare, Alternative Chloe appears and blames Max. Before she disappears, she says, "Life is... so not fair." 'Note: '''While not featured directly in the game, the closest a character ever came to saying ''"life is strange" was during the trailer for the Limited Edition, when Max said "then life started getting strange".https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y60Rp3QbT58&feature=youtu.be&t=52s Lorem Ipsum This text appears in the background of Max's Journal. It is commonly used for filler or "dummy text" in works of printing and typesetting. This dates back to the 1500s, and was made popular in the 1960's. It has roots in classical Latin literature.This website is helpful for more backstory on the Lorem Ipsum. The standard passage used since the 1500s is thus: "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum."''For a translation and explanation of the passage, see this video from Mari at Geek Remix. Memes Life Is Strange references several popular memes. tumblr_nsjb1kKtWb1s0qosvo1_1280.jpg tumblr_nsjb1kKtWb1s0qosvo2_1280.jpg tumblr_nsjb1kKtWb1s0qosvo3_1280.jpg tumblr_nsjb1kKtWb1s0qosvo5_1280.jpg tumblr_nsjb1kKtWb1s0qosvo6_1280.jpg tumblr_nsjb1kKtWb1s0qosvo7_1280.jpg Michel Koch Michel Koch, one of the directors behind ''Life is Strange himself, makes an appearance in "Polarized". Or is it a coincidence that a man exactly looking like him is sitting in the same plane as Max on her way to the Zeitgeist Gallery? He is also featured inside the gallery. Admiring three black and white pictures, he comments on them: "Bad exposure, bad framing, bad picture. I could have done this so much better." LifeIsStrange 2016-09-07 21-53-14-862.jpg LifeIsStrange 2016-09-07 19-30-20-223.jpg No Fucks Given In Episode 3, when Max goes back in time through a photo to find herself in her 13-year-old body on the day that William Price died, she is wearing a blue T-shirt with scrambled letters. A Reddit user managed to unscramble these letters to read, "No fucks given".The Reddit user, Kimchi816, took to twitter to ask Dontnod's producer, Luc Baghadoust, if this was done on purpose. His reply was: "Haha. Maybe. :)". The concept artist, Edouard Caplain, also replied to say he was "very impressed" by the discovery. nofcksgiven.png Real Arcadia Bay TBA Reversed Reverse In the reversed Blackwell Academy sequence of Max's nightmare, you can hear and see things normally if Max uses her rewind in this scene. Samuel is the only character in this scene that doesn't speak backwards. If you walk up to him and stand next to him, you can hear his voice speaking forwards; things he already said during the game.More in this video. Rachel's Poster Rachel Amber's missing person poster appears to be based on the real-life missing poster of Sunday Blombergh. Sunday.jpg Rachelamber.png It is interesting to note that not only the template of both posters is similar, but the content of the original missing poster seems to have inspired some of Rachel's features: *Both Sunday and Rachel have a dragon tattoo on their calf and a (black) star tattoo on the inside of at least one of their wrists. *Both Sunday and Rachel's height (5"5') and eye color (hazel) are the same. *The day Sunday and Rachel went missing is the same: April 22. *The telephone number for the Sheriff's station is the same (minus the central office code): 388-6020. Rewinding is Getting Old If you go inside the Swimming Pool lockers in "Chaos Theory" and then rewind, Chloe says, "Dude, it's getting old! Try and dazzle me with another trick!" Rewind Sounds The sounds Max hears while rewinding are reversed future and past dialog pieces or other sounds that are part of the game such as train or shoot sounds.See this and this video for information and examples. Self-Homage There are several references and nods towards DONTNOD's first game, Remember Me. * The panda plushie that is attached to Lisa the Plant and Chloe’s “cute robot panda keychain” are oblique references to Jax the Panda. Jax the Panda Remember Me.jpg|Jax the Panda (Remember Me) Chloe Jax the Panda Keychain.png|Chloe's panda key chain Panda Plushie.png|The plushie attached to Lisa *Brooke's drone has a similar shape and the same paintjob as the gunship Trace flies in Remember Me. *Max's "focus within a focus" on the selfie she took in class is a direct reference to Remember Me's "remixing the remix" segment. *The edges of walkways in the labyrinthine segments of Max's nightmare echo the edges of walkways in the Ego Rooms in Remember Me. Thanks for Crying At the end of the credits for "Dark Room", it says "thanks for crying" instead of "thanks for playing". Time Travel References Since time travel is a central theme in Life is Strange, there are several references to other films and series that popularized time travel and inspired the game. Butterfly Effect Doctor Who * In a text between Warren Graham and Max that can be seen in Episode 2, he asks Max if he's now Doctor Who, the protagonist of the British time travel series , and that "he'll be in the ", the machine that the protagonists in Doctor Who use to travel through time. * On the laundry ticket in Victoria's room that can be found in Episode 1, the name of the employee is "Amelia Pond" (one the Doctor's companions). * Warren's flash drive has pirated films and television shows including Doctor Who. * Warren's email account icon is a picture of the Wiki|TARDIS, the time machine in the British time travel series Doctor Who. He also refers to himself as "The Doctor", the protagonist of the series, in his email and text messages. * In the barn during the fourth episode, Max spots an owl and calls it "Doctor Hoo." * On Kate's Get Well cards, among the signatures of students, there's the signature of River S. and Rory W. referencing Doctor Who characters. Donnie Darko * On Max's notepad in the classroom at the beginning of the game, you can see a small doodle of Frank the Rabbit from the film. Frank's first name is also believed to be a reference to the character. * If the player chose to make fun of Victoria, Max's room will be trashed and vandalized in Episode 2. On the ground, nearest to her radio, is a ruined copy of . Back to the Future *Warren mentions ''in an email to Max that can be seen in Episode 2. After her request regarding information on relativity, wormwholes and time travel, he texts Max if he's now Dr. Brown, the protagonist of the movies, and that "he'll be getting his DeLorean ready", the time machine used in Back to the Future. * After warning Alyssa Anderson about the toilet paper in the hall of the girls’ dormitory in Episode 2, she asks Max what her favorite science-fiction film is. The player has the choice of choosing ''Back to the Future among other time travel movies. *When Max returns from the bathroom with the morphine in Episode 4, Chloe says to Max, "Wish I could build us a... DeLorean." Groundhog Day *When looking at the window in Jefferson's classroom after rewinding for the first time in Episode 1, Max says she feels like she's in , a comedy movie about a man who is caught in a time loop and has to experience the same day again and again. Max also comments that her situation despite the resemblance to the film isn't funny refering to it being a comedy piece. * After warning Alyssa Anderson about the toilet paper in the hall of the girls’ dormitory in Episode 2, she asks Max what her favorite science-fiction film is. The player has the choice of choosing Groundhog Day among other time travel movies. * In the parking lot of the Two Whales Diner in Episode 2, there is a license plate that spells "GRNDHGD". * Max mentions that the jukebox in the diner is playing “I Got You Babe”. She finds it ironic, given the similarities between her own story and the film Groundhog Day that featured that song prominently. Remember Me Max Caulfield, bares a strong physical resemblance to another main character, Cartier-Wells from one of Dontnod's other games Me. Apart from the obvious skin tone difference. Nilin's clothing is also very similar to Max's, if a more futuristic version. Victoria also clearly resembles Olga in the face/hair department. Trivia * In an interview, Game Designer Alejandro Arque said that his favorite Easter eggs are the Harry Potter and Doctor Who references. References de:Easter Eggs pt-br:Easter Eggs ru:Пасхалки Category:Life is Strange Category:Special Content Category:Behind the Scenes Category:Behind the Scenes (Season 1) Category:Easter Eggs